Day 4

Today was mostly driving along the Southeast coast and Fjords.  Only a couple of stops. one at a large water fall and the other for lunch in a small fishing village.  I did upload a few pictures from today.  I had the video camera running n the car, but I have no way to upload them directly from the canera, so I will have to wait unitl we get home.

The weather was cold and windy again today and we even had a bit of snow as we were leaving Hofn. Driving in Iceland is fairly easy even though we can't read the signs.  All of the major roads outside the large cities are only 2 lanes.  Most of the bridges ( and there are a lot of them) are only single lane and you have to take turns crossing.  Some of the road we were on tioday was just gravel. The maximum speed limit is 90 KM/HR which is about 60 MPH.  The roads are in good shape but probably not safe to drive much faster.  Today there was very little traffic, I guess because it was Sunday.  Mostly just tourists on the roads.  Most of the business and shops were closed everywhere since it was Sunday.

The Fjords were spectacular, but very different from the ones in Alaska,  There is still no trees or bushes. just the grass and moss on the mountains and coastlines.  In the Alasaka fjords the mountains drop right into the ocean.  Here there is still a small flat coastal plain between the mountains and the water. We did finally see a few trees where we are staying tonight. There are funny looking pine trees that I have never seen before, We aslo drove over a mountain pass that still had a lot of snow.  The highest elevation was only about 975 meters.

They have a local legend here about the LagarfljotsWorm, Icelands most renowned water monster and supposedly the sister to the Loch Ness Monster.  We took a couple of picutres next to a poorly done likeness.

I created a new folder on Dropbox for the picutres from Linda's cameras and I am trying to upload them but our WiFi and internet access at the hotel in really bad, so they might not all get uploaded for a few days.

I have been checking the radar and my web cams at home at it looks like we only have about 3-4 inches of snow so far and its melting on the roads.  Also the radar shows most of the heavy snow is all around Shaffers Crossing, but only light snow at home right now.

The official sunset is at 10:23 tonight ( in about 7 minutes)  I will take a picture then and just before I go to bed so you can see how light it still is.  I remember in Alaska only think it was about 7 PM when it actuall 11 PM.  Dusk just goes on and on.

Tomorrrow is Dittifoss, the largest waterfall in Iceland, some cool geothemal and volcanic areas and end the day at Lake Myvatn with a relaxing soak at the thermal pools.

Oh, one last thing.  I had my first Viking beer at dinner tonight and it was really BAD.